


Minus Five, Plus One

by alwayssomethingelse



Category: Doctor Who, UNIT: the New Series (Big Finish Audio)
Genre: 5+1, F/F, How many times can Kate invite Osgood for Canapés?, Kate adores Osgood, Kate saves the day, Osgood adores Kate, Osgood saves the day, flirtation, so why does it take so long?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 18:18:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13507128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alwayssomethingelse/pseuds/alwayssomethingelse
Summary: Five times Kate invited Osgood to be her plus one at work related evening events, and one time Osgood said yes (and they actually got to the event without being waylaid).





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was sparked off by a chat with [spilled_notes](http://archiveofourown.org/users/spilled_notes/pseuds/spilled_notes) after I'd listened to UNIT: Extinction, where Kate invites Osgood to the launch at Devlin FutureTech, and Osgood worms her way out of it... We wondered how many times Kate had asked Osgood to be her plus one, and what would happen if Osgood said yes...
> 
> (Also, my first time writing fic in nearly a year. Can't believe it's been this long.)

**I)**

The first time it happens, Osgood has only been working in the Tower for a week. She’s in her lab leaning over a microscope when she feels a change in the room temperature and glances round.

“Ma’am?” Her new boss is leaning on the doorframe, watching her work, with a slight smile toying about her lips. 

“Kate, please.”

“…Kate. What can I do for you?” Osgood finds herself looking anywhere but the doorway. “Did you want to see what I was working on? I’m investigating what this object from the last skyfall might be…”

“At ease, Osgood. I’m glad to see you’re getting to grips with the work so fast. Not that I’m surprised…” 

She takes a few steps into the room, heels making a light click which Osgood processes, involuntarily wondering how she didn’t hear Kate’s previous approach. 

Now Kate stands with her hands on her hips, thumbs looped into her pockets, casting a glance over the room, seemingly less eager to speak.

“Was there…something specific?” Osgood’s eyes flicker back and forth from her work to her boss.

“Something…Oh, yes, well, it’s nothing really. At least…” Kate corrects herself, “I’ve just received an invite to a joint Ministry of Defence and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ‘do’ tonight. A celebration of scientific developments in the military. Dreadfully tedious events, but we have to make a showing, and they do at least do good canapés. I’d far rather bring one of my scientific team than…well, you know.” She smiles, giving a nonchalant wave of her hand.

Osgood can’t help but mirror the smile. “Who were you thinking of? I’m working late, but I don’t need any of my team for this.”

“You’re… Oh. Surely you don’t need to work late on your first week? It’s not like we have an alien incursion on the books.”

Osgood feels her eyes widen. “Oh, you meant me? Oh, no, I mean, well, they’re not really my kinda of thing, parties, you know, people and all that, chit chat, it’s not something I’m really that comfortable with. You know, science geek and…” She can feel her lungs closing, and reaches for her inhaler. Takes a puff. “Sorry.” 

Kate’s head is tilted to one side, eyes showing mild concern as she watches her newest member of staff calm down. Osgood could kick herself for being such an idiot. One day she should get over the people thing. But it’s quite enough getting used to being in her dream job, this week, thank you.

“Well, if you’re sure?”

“I’m sorry Ma…Kate. I…I think I’d like to get settled in before I…”

“Quite understandable. I shouldn’t have asked you so soon.” She sounds genuinely apologetic.

Osgood feels her shoulders lowering, back starting to de-tense. Kate turns towards the door.

“Next time, though?”

“Wha… Oh, um. Yes. That would be…” 

“Tip top.” And Kate is gone, heels clicking up the stone steps.

Left to the quiet whirrs and beeps of the lab, Osgood replays the conversation. What would it be? Fun? Hardly, with all those people. Nor is she likely to learn anything from the type of people who would be at such an event, so not fruitful, either. But a night out with Kate… She shakes her head vigorously. Thinking about the boss as anything but the boss is never a good idea. She lowers her eyes back to the microscope. 

 

**II)**

A month or so later, Kate catches Osgood at the end of her Friday evening briefing.

“Are you coming?”

“Coming?” Osgood turns to face into her boss’s office. “I thought you just said you wanted me to work on an alternative means of catching the entities?” Football sized toad like creatures had been found in the Lake District, doing no harm to anyone so far, but sending the zoologist fraternity mad with excitement. They’d even called in David Attenborough. Of course, the concern was that, whatever the creatures were, they might turn nasty. And UNIT could not afford the headlines _that_ might create. The first – and only – specimen anyone has succeeded in catching (by tickling its underbelly) is currently hopping around her lab, and no one can catch it. 

“What? Oh, yes, that too. But didn’t you get the invite? I left it on your desk a few days ago.” Kate’s eyes sparkle mischievously. “It’s a good thing I don’t enforce the clean desk policy too firmly…” 

Osgood flushes, despite the clear jest. Not that Kate has a leg to stand on, she thinks, glancing further into the office, where a mountain of paperwork camouflages a sizeable table. Kate catches her eye and grins more widely. 

“Well? I should hope one of us can still find our invite, otherwise it looks like neither of us will be going.” 

“Invite?” Osgood scours her brain. “Can’t say that I did. What’s it for?”

“Peruvian Embassy. Sam Bishop would normally represent us, but he’s in Johannesburg at the moment and it seems a bit much to bring him back for drinks and blinis. Which means I have to turn out. And I’d much rather share the pain.”

“You’re really selling this to me Ma’am. An evening in the lab inventing, or pain in the Peruvian Embassy, let me see…”

“Kate.” She reproves without thinking. “It’s not that bad really. Their champagne may not be great, but the Merlot is lovely.”

“I’m not really much of a drinker to be honest. And I’d really rather be ahead of the curve on this, just in case our new friends turn nasty…” Looking up, Osgood is surprised to catch a glimpse of what might be disappointment on Kate’s face. “Next time, though?”

“Next time I won’t leave the invite on your desk!” Kate humphs. “Alright, back to the lab with you. But don’t work too late.”

As Osgood walks off she hears Kate lift her phone and buzz for her driver, whilst rifling through a large pile of paperwork. “Enjoy!” She calls over her shoulder, grinning at the eyeroll she receives in return. 

***

She’s not smiling five hours later when, despite her best efforts, she’s found no way of containing the one specimen ‘toad’ (she’s named him Kenneth). 

“No joy?” The voice, coming as it does out of relative silence, makes her jump.

“Kate! I wasn’t expecting to see you back here tonight. How were the blinis?”

“Better than Gordon’s cooking, but not my idea of a square meal. How’s your amphibious friend?”

“Not willing to be cooped up. Very hard to catch, and each time I think I’ve managed getting it into a container, it finds a way out.”

“How?” Kate crosses her arms, leans against a work station, newly emptied of anything breakable.

“Well…it seems their tongues are distinctly more flexible than our fingers, to start with.” 

Kate suppresses a chuckle at this. 

“Pity they don’t use them to communicate though. I don’t think they do use their mouths for speech at all.” Osgood doesn’t look away from Kenneth, currently bouncing along the ceiling, so she misses Kate’s slight shake of her head, the twist of her lips. “It seems to keep repeating a particular rhythm of, well, I suppose you could say croaking. But it bears no resemblance to any earth amphibian. Um Kate, I’d…” 

Kenneth lands on Kate’s head, chest flesh drooping over her eyes, forelegs on her shoulders. 

“…move if I were you.” An idea occurs. “Ah, Kate…can you just…no, no don’t try and touch it!” Osgood catches Kate’s hands midway to her head, apologetic. “We don’t want to upset it, those tongues carry a venom I’ve never met before. Here…” Dropping one hand to Kate’s waist, she guides her spluttering boss, all soft and warm in her silk shirt, across the room, too engrossed to enjoy the sensation. “Now, when I say, I want you to shake your head forwards, really forcefully…like…like you’re at a rock concert, does that make sense? Then move back, as fast as you can.” 

A slightly strangulated assent – Kenneth now has one foreleg wrapped around Kate’s throat. Osgood drops her hands from Kate, and reaches for a lever.

“Now!” 

As Kate does as she’s told, and Kenneth bounces off the far wall, stunned, Osgood raises the five-inch glass containment field. Breathes a sigh of relief when it clicks into place with Kenneth still on the far side. She turns to her boss.

“Are you okay?”

“Beginning to think I shouldn’t have had that third glass of Merlot… Also wondering what type of music fan you take me for.”

“I, ah…” Osgood thinks wildly. 

“Relax, that was a joke. Just because I go to the odd chamber recital now doesn’t mean I haven’t been in a mosh pit in my time.” Kate winks.

The idea of the woman in front of her moshing removes all the air from Osgood’s lungs.

“Inhaler.” Kate turns to look at Kenneth, now bouncing off the glass wall again. “Well that was one way of getting it contained. Not the most elegant, or the easiest to deploy in the field, but at least it’s a start. How about you take a break?”

“Thanks, I think I will. It’s been rather tiring, this evening…”

“I imagine it’s a bit like having a hyperactive child.” Kate muses as she puts out a hand to steer Osgood away. “Liz was like that about age three, especially when anyone gave her sugar.”

“Remind me I’m never having children.”

“Oh, they’re not that bad. Come on, there’s a camp bed in the ante-room of my office. I know you’re going to refuse to go home, but you can at least get a nap before we work out what next.”

“What about you?” 

“Oh, I’ll doze in my chair. It’s not the first time, and it certainly won’t be the last. Come on.” Kate’s hand falls from her back as they leave the lab, Osgood pausing to lock the door. 

 

**III)**

The third time, Osgood nearly says yes. 

“Royal Society Annual Dinner?” Kate appears beside Osgood’s desk, fluidly turning 180 degrees before resting on the one spot without paperwork. 

“Hmm?” Osgood doesn’t look up from her inspection of an ancient carved piece of what looks like Limestone, but has the chemical makeup of nothing she’s ever seen before.

“That looks interesting? From the Atlantis find?”

“The very same. Its origin wasn’t Earth, let’s put it that way.”

“Purpose?”

“I’ve been trying to work that out. It doesn’t appear to be literary; the script isn’t the same as any of the tablets we’ve recovered. But its molecular structure doesn’t suggest… Oh!” Osgood’s eyes widen as she raises her head swiftly, nearly cracking Kate’s chin in the process.

“Sor…Oh.” Kate gets a better look at the rock. The script is glowing, never staying any one colour, constantly changing like a smooth multi-coloured fibreoptic. “Thoughts?” 

“I… don’t know. There was nothing on the scans to suggest an integral power source, I don’t even know how it’s doing that?”

“I wonder if…”

As if to answer Kate’s question, Captain Carter puts his head round the door.

“Ma’am, Osgood, there’s something you should see… Oh. It’s happened here, too.”

“The rest of the find?” Osgood and Kate ask at the same time.

Carter nods. “Well, at least, a good half of it. All the rocks that look like that. All started glowing. And they sort of hum.”

Kate raises an eyebrow. “Sounds like we’d better take a look. So much for the Royal Society Dinner.”

“What?”

Kate waves the tickets in front of her, dropping them on the desk. “That was why I came down, to ask if you wanted to come. I wasn’t leaving them on your desk this time. Seems like I’ll be missing it myself, more’s the pity. It would have been the first hot meal I’d have had all week.”

Osgood is nearly at the door of the lab when she takes this in.

“Oh, the Royal Society. I’d have enjoyed that. Pity.” 

***

Downstairs, in a room that was once an armoury but has long since been requisitioned by UNIT, various of Osgood’s team pour over glowing artefacts, just like the piece she’d been looking at in her lab. Their quiet chatter is inaudible under the hum coming from the stones. 

Kate and Osgood stand in silence for a moment. Listening.

“They’re…singing.” Osgood turns to Kate. 

Kate nods, eyes wide. “It reminds me of something.”

“The Ainur.” Osgood says softly.

“Hmm?”

“The Ainur. The first beings created by Illuvatar…” Osgood glances at Kate’s slowly comprehending eyes. “Tolkien.”

“Ah, yes. Are you thinking…”

“That the aliens who formed Atlantis might create a world within a world for themselves by singing it into existence? It’s possible, I suppose.”

“I was thinking more that they might be creating some kind of weapon.” Kate gestures to the stones. “Look how the light is changing more swiftly. It seems like they’re powering up.”

Osgood pulls out a hand held scanner. Holds it steady, and stares at the readings. “I’m… not sure. You might be right….” The scanner bleeps repeatedly. “Um, I think you are, actually.”

“Everyone!” Kate shouts above the noise that now resembles a school canteen five minutes into lunch break. “Everyone! ALL STAFF are to evacuate now. Make your way to Assembly Point 12.”

“Remind me, which one is that?”

“Traitors Gate.” 

“Ah yes.” Osgood doesn’t take her eyes off the scanner. “Kate? I don’t think it’s a weapon as such. Or at least, not for us… But I think we should get out too.” She turns to shepherd them towards the door, where the last of her team are exiting. “Now.” 

The door safely locked, they remain at the top of the stone stairs, watching.

“What did you pick up?”

“The molecules in the air immediately surrounding each artefact were moving in a very strange fashion. At a guess…” Osgood is cut off by a series of loud bangs. “…we should be glad for that Adamantium reinforcement you had put in last year.”

“Ah. They’ve self-destructed.”

“And probably taken everything else with them, more’s the pity. Now we’ll never know who formed Atlantis, or how.” Osgood can’t stop the disappointment in her voice. This find had been a childhood dream come true. 

Kate looks at her watch. “And by the time we’ve cleared up here, we’ll still be too late for the dinner. Still, I’ve got a bottle of rather fine Sauvignon Blanc in my office, if you’d like to join me later?”

“Drinking at work, sounds rebellious.”

“I never did play by all the rules Osgood.” Kate chuckles as they approach the door. “D’you think it’s safe?” 

“There haven’t been any more explosions for two minutes.” She starts to unlock the door. “Best hold your breath when we open the door though. I don’t think it should be poisonous, but you never know.”

“Right you are.” Kate takes a deep breath.

The door opens, and through a falling haze, they can see the digital equipment is still functioning. Osgood holds up her scanner, watches it intently, then lets out a sigh. 

“It should be fine. I mean, full of dust, but nothing poisonous…” She pauses to use her inhaler.

“Do you need a face mask?” Kate looks at her with concern. “We do have a PPE store just upstairs.”

“I know.” Osgood risks another sniff. “I think I’d better.”

“You go and get the gear, I’ll recall the troops. Looks like we’ve got some cleaning up to do.”

***

Three hours later, Osgood makes it back to her lab, hair distinctly greyer than it was before. A small scorch mark on her desk denotes the last location of the sole artefact. 

“So it self-destructed too. Pity.” She touches the spot, fingers catch at a bit of card. “What’s this… Oh! The invites. Oh well.” Only a small corner remains, gilt-edged and plush paper. A reminder that a glass of wine awaits her. Osgood removes her lab coat and washes her hands. Wonders if there’s anything she can bring, and then remembers with a grin. It only takes her a couple of minutes to get to Kate’s office. 

“Ah, Osgood. Come in. What’s that you’ve brought?”

“Well, not all the Atlantean artefacts were destroyed, and as this wasn’t of alien origin, it didn’t self-destruct, either.”

“What is it?” Kate passes her a glass of chilled white wine. “Cheers, Osgood. Or as my father used to say, “your sanity!”

“Really, why’d he say that?”

“Something his uncle taught him. Some joke he shared with a German soldier, that first Christmas at Ypres. Anyway, what is it?” Kate gestures to the glass disc. It looks not unlike a clock, or a sundial.

“Well I think…” Osgood puts her glass down, and sets the disc on the table, starts the hands spinning, and then the glass itself. “It’s a musical instrument of some sort.” She takes a sip of her wine.

“That’s beautiful. It’s…” Kate pauses. “reminiscent of the sounds the stones made, but…”

“Less destructive?”

“I should hope so!”

“Don’t worry, I had it playing in my lab for hours earlier. It’s quite safe. I think it’s only inspired by the sounds that created Atlantis…”

“Or Middle Earth?”

“Something like that. I never had you down as a Tolkien fan…”

 

 **IV)**

Kate looks down at the tickets in her hand. _Fourth time lucky?_ She muses, tapping them against the table. She’s tried asking in advance, tried last minute, tried just leaving the invites on Osgood’s desk. This time, she’s already mentioned it – a drinks reception for military scientists on HMS Belfast – a few days ago, and had a positive response. So now all she needs to do is endeavour to make sure Osgood can’t lose the tickets within the next half an hour, or become so involved in a project that she can’t move from her lab. It’s not that Kate can’t bring other members of her team. It’s just, well…there’s something about Osgood’s gentle camaraderie that appeals to her more than Carter’s gung-ho loose cannon style, or General Shindi’s formal military reserve. These events are always so tedious, and she has an idea that Osgood’s observations would make them considerably more amusing. 

And, of course, she rather likes Osgood. Kate shakes her head at that thought. _She’s part of your team, Tiger. One of your own._

But she does.

Rising from her desk, Kate grabs her bag and jacket. The car is at the front, ready and waiting. There’s no major work on at the moment, no particular investigation. Carter has been following up on some intel Sam Bishop sent over from Marrakesh. She’s already sent him home for the night. Osgood has been working on discovering just what is contained in a number of strange fungi that appeared on Greenham Common a few weeks back. Their finding coincided with a major incident, so, as they posed no immediate threat, the virulent purple and magenta puffballs had been hastily removed from potential public interference, and put aside till the team had a spare moment. Nothing particularly riveting. 

“Osgood?” She calls ahead. 

“Yes? Oh, is it time already? Just a minute!” 

As Kate enters the lab, she spots Osgood turn from one of the fungi to make a note. She has it held in large callipers, with a small mechanical hammer rhythmically tapping.

“Just…trying to work out if the density is the same the whole…way…through.” Osgood says, as much to her notes as to Kate. “Be with you in a moment.”

“Osgood, is it…” Kate eyes the mushroom, which has now started to pulse “…supposed to do that?”

Osgood looks up, and Kate gestures.

“Oh! I… Well I wasn’t expecting that.” She turns to flick a switch, stopping the tapping. “Hmm. It could be a primitive form of protection, or perhaps something more defensive… Quite interesting really… Look, it’s slowing down now.”

“Nothing that can’t wait till the morning, then?” Kate waves the invites in front of her.

“It should be fine.” Osgood concedes. “I’ll just shut it away.” She starts to lift the oversized petri dish when Kate, with a foreboding sense of premonition steps forward in warning. Too late. The final pulse is accompanied by a burst of turquoise sputum, which catches Osgood’s hands. “Oh!”

“Lucky you’d just turned away, that would have got you right in the face…” Kate glances from Osgood to the fungi and back. “Are you ok?”

Osgood staggers a step back from the work station. “I… I think I am…” 

“Here, do you want to collect a sample?” Kate has already moved to find a test tube, turns back to see Osgood looking very white. “You’re _not_ alright, I think you’d better sit down.” She grabs the nearest stool, and almost has it under her when Osgood slips to the floor in what appears to be a dead faint. Kate catches her shoulders in time to stop her head hitting the floor. The sputum seems to be disappearing. Into the back of Osgood’s hand.

“Shit!” Kate kneels down, scrapes what remains into the test tube and stoppers it. “Osgood? Osgood?” Her breathing is slowing, skin tone still paler than usual, this could be a normal faint, but somehow Kate doesn’t think so. And it’s certainly not an Asthma attack. 

“Ma’am, everything ok in there?”

“Colonel Shindi, I didn’t realise you were still here.”

“I was just leaving Ma’am, when I thought I heard something. Thought I’d better come and check. Why is Miss Osgood unconscious?”

“That’s something I’d very much like to know too.” She relates the past few minutes to the Colonel. 

“Should we call an ambulance, move her to the Royal London?”

“I don’t think so. At least not yet. There’s nothing surgical they can do; and until we know what we’re dealing with, I’d rather keep this in house. There’s a gurney in that store cupboard, could you get it out and give me a hand to get her on to it?” As Shindi bustles over to the store, Kate thinks. They’ve got all the testing facilities she’s going to need. Normally, one of Osgood’s team would take over if she weren’t available, but it’s a Friday night, and she’s loathe to scramble them in on their first weekend night off in weeks.

“There we are Ma’am. Is it safe to roll her?”

“Yes. That’s it, like that. Now…” Kate investigates under the gurney until she finds the correct lever, and raises Osgood’s prone form to a level she can comfortably stand at. “My apologies Colonel, but, you know the ante-room to my office? Here’s the key. Could you fetch the blanket and pillow you’ll find in the tall cupboard there? Thank you.” As he exits the room with a brief nod, Kate turns back to Osgood. “Now sleeping beauty, what do I do first…” She forces her mind back to her earlier training. She’s a bit rusty on the practical side – nothing like having a team who does it for you to make you complacent, she ruminates. “Oh yes. Now, where do you keep…”

When Colonel Shindi returns, Kate is midway through taking a number of blood samples from Osgood.

“I’ll compare these to her staff medical notes, and also to the sample I managed to get of the fungi’s spit. That’ll be a starting point.”

He nods, a little startled. 

“Anything the matter?”

“Sorry Ma’am, I just don’t normally think of you in a lab coat.” Shindi gestures to the spare white jacket of Osgood’s that she’s donned.

“Well I am a scientist too, you know, Colonel. I didn’t get the biggest office just because it looks nice.”

“Of course. Is there anything I can do? Unlike you, I’m afraid my last scientific training was probably ‘O’ Level Chemistry.”

Kate knows that in another situation, this might make her smile. “No, although I would appreciate it if you could stick around. I may find I need help after all.” 

“Certainly Ma’am. Shall I go and make some coffee?”

“That would be wonderful.” She turns back to Osgood. “Let’s get you comfier on that thing.”

It doesn’t take long to finish taking the samples, although getting the results will require a little bit of time. Having hooked Osgood up to various monitors, to ensure she knows if there’s any further change, Kate turns to eye the fungi. Scowls. 

“This is all your fault.”

“Pardon?” Shindi has reappeared with the coffee.

“Sorry Colonel. I was just contemplating the thing that incapacitated Osgood. I’m analysing the sample currently, but I may have to be more thorough.” She picks up Osgood’s notes. “I wonder how far she’d got?”

***

An hour later, Kate’s not certain she’s any further. The Colonel has given up sitting in the lab with her, frustrated by how she keeps talking to herself. Kate doesn’t tell him she’s actually talking to Osgood, despite getting no answer. She’s quite glad that he’s retreated to his office. He’s within reach if she needs him.

“You know, if you didn’t want to go that badly, you could have just told me.” She remarks in passing to Osgood, stopping to look down at her. She really does look like she’s just asleep. Something Kate’s never seen, but now she thinks about it, puts a wrench in her heart. She pauses, lump in her throat. Touches her hand to Osgood’s – the one without the interesting turquoise scar. Draws her thumb lightly over soft skin. “Oh...” She murmurs, quieter this time, as the realisation dawns. 

Kate Stewart is nobody’s fool. Certainly not her own. It’s been a long time since she’s fallen in love. Sure, she has loved. She loves all her team, particularly the immediate group. Osgood included. But this is not that kind of love. This…this… _Oh, bugger._ She shakes her head. This is helping no one. Time to get some work done.

“Come on Osgood, give me a hand here. What should I do next?” Kate turns back to the work station, where the fungi remains, albeit now with a Perspex box over it. There have been no more emissions, which suggests its bad manners were indeed brought on as some sort of protective measure. 

Then the next step falls into her mind, as if Osgood herself had put it there. Without extra thought, Kate gathers up the requisite utensils, starts a new analysis. Somehow she knows the calculations to make, and the work keeps her busy. Each time she finds herself at a loss, the answer springs into her mind, in Osgood’s very tone and phrase.

“Is that you Osgood? Because I’m sure I never learned this technique.” Kate turns to look at her, but she’s still unconscious. Shakes her head, but jumps when it feels like a hand is rested on her lower back, a warmth at her shoulder. 

There’s no one there. Kate shakes herself. “You’re being ridiculous.” She chides, before looking down at the work she’s just done, and back over at Osgood. “If this _is_ you, I wish you could tell me a few other things.”

No answer. 

Across the lab, the electrophoresis machine starts to bleep with results. Moments later Kate breathes a sigh of relief. She knows how to create the antidote now. It shouldn’t take long, mercifully.

Half an hour later, she’s holding Osgood’s hand, injecting the serum into a metacarpal vein, praying that she’s got this right. A minute or so later, Osgood starts to stir. Her hand twitches in Kate’s, fingers curl lightly round hers; her colour starts to come back; her eyes flicker, mouth moves, but the words are whispered. Kate bends over the gurney.

“Kate…? What…happened? Strangest…I had the strangest dream.”

“Oh? Here, lie still while I get you some water.” She supports Osgood to sit up and sip at the glass, then to swivel round till she’s sitting on the edge of the gurney. “What was your dream?”

“It seems silly, now that I think about it. The last thing I remember is the fungi spitting at me, and then, it was weird. I woke up, lying here…” Osgood gestures to the trolley. “And you were there, working at my station, and I realised I wasn’t _me_ anymore. I could sort of…detach…from my body. Like an out of body experience I suppose. I got up, and looked at what you were doing, and it was really frustrating, because you weren’t doing what I knew you should be, so I kept trying to tell you, and then…”

“…Yes?” Part amused, part fearful, Kate stares at her science officer. _Just how much did you see, _she thinks.__

__

__

Osgood’s cheeks are tinged with pink, her eyelashes bat down. “And then I can’t remember. You…I…You were standing over me and I woke up, that’s all.”

“Quite enough too. That fungi was trying to modify your DNA. It had already begun to alter one of your markers, but knowing that, and having a sample of both your DNA, and the sputum on file, I was able to halt its process, and, I think, reverse it.”

“So the dream…” Osgood considers, then seems to change her mind. “It was probably some hallucination, right? You know what fungi are like.”

“Right. Now, shall I have a car take you home?”

“Y’know, I don’t really feel like sleeping at this point. Think I’d rather get to analysing the data you collected. Try and work out the origin of those puffballs – and whether they can be put to any kind of use for us.”

“On your own? I’m not sure that’s safe, considering what happened.” But Kate can tell by looking at Osgood that she’s fighting a losing battle. “Alright, how about I stay as well? Two pairs of eyes are better than one.”

“If you…I mean, yes, if you’d like. But I’m fine, really.”

Kate looks Osgood up and down, her heart pounding. “I think I’d rather be sure of that with my own eyes.”

“Okay.” Osgood smiles, cheeks tinged with pink again. “Um… Shall we get started then?”

**V)**

It is some time before Kate asks Osgood to come to a drinks reception again. Not that there aren’t opportunities, but she either avoids them by passing the duty on to Colonel Shindi, or simply flies solo. It’s not a conscious decision, but the realisation that Osgood means more to her than the rest of her team, or at least, in a different way, makes her think twice about placing herself in a potentially intimate situation. She doesn’t want to destroy the friendship they already have, doesn’t want Osgood to feel pressured, or worse, trapped; doesn’t want to be unprofessional. Nonetheless, she can hardly miss the confused, almost hurt looks that cross Osgood’s face on those days when she mentions having been to an event the night before as they wait for the briefing room to settle.

Kate is just clearing her desk for the evening, ready to depart for an event at Devlin’s reformed FutureTech – best to keep an eye on what he’s up to – when there’s a quiet tap at the door, and at her assent, Osgood appears, closing the door behind her.

“What can I do for you?”

“Well, I was just finishing, and I…”

Marvelling at Osgood leaving the Tower before ten pm, Kate nods. “Good for you! Are you going to have a night off?” She rises, pulling on her jacket.

“Something like that. I wondered if…well, I couldn’t help overhearing you saying you were going to the event at Future Tech. I…know how you…I mean, I know you don’t like…what I mean is…”

“…Inhaler?” Kate suggests, curious.

Osgood stops and breathes. “No, it’s not that.” Pauses, collects herself. “I mean, would you like some company?” Stands looking remarkably young and scared, like she’s just asked something dreadfully out of turn.

“But I thought networking was your idea of hell?” Kate stalls, trying to work out whether she should let her heart or her head decide her response.

“Well it is, really. But you said you find them tedious, and I just thought… Well, with two of us, it might be better. And if Devlin is up to his old tricks, at least you’ve got backup.”

“That’s…very thoughtful of you Osgood.” Turning to reach for her scarf, Kate bites her lip. Would it be so bad, so very unprofessional, to spend an evening with her?

“I’d like to.” Osgood is quiet, but firm. “Really, I would.”

 _She’s an adult._ Kate thinks, draping her scarf round her neck. _We’re both adults. This is ridiculous._

“That would be lovely. Thank you.” She turns back around in time to surprise a look of delight on Osgood’s face. “Are you ready to go? I was running late as it was, and they tend to start bang on the dot.”

“Ready and waiting. I…take it I’m dressed ok?”

“Absolutely fine.” Kate smiles, and ushers Osgood out of her office. “I’ve got the car at the front, come on.”

They’ve made it as far as the security gates when Carter catches them up, just slightly breathless.

“Ma’am, Osgood! Glad I caught you. Word just in, that fracking business down in Balcolmbe?”

“Yes, what about it?”

“They’ve disturbed a Silurian nest. And you know the Silurians, they’re none too happy.”

“Damn! How many times have I warned the Department for Business and Energy that this could happen?” Frowning, Kate thinks. “Ok, we’ll head there now. Carter, you go back, mobilise the troops, follow us down.”

“Bring my field kit, will you Josh?” Osgood calls from the passenger seat. 

“Will do. See you there.” He heads back to the Tower at a trot.

“So much for our canapés. We can stop at a motorway services and get a bite to eat, but I’m afraid it might be a long night after all.”

“Look on the bright side, at least it won’t include Simon Devlin smarming?” Osgood suggests.

“True. Small mercies.” Kate nods to the security guard who lets them out. “God save me from Whitehall’s self-created problems.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can see, part VI rather ran away with me...

**VI)**

The Silurian business has them taken up for a few weeks, with no time to even open invitations to any evening events, let alone attend them. But a few days after they have resolved the situation, a manilla envelope lands on Kate’s desk with two gilt edged, heavily embossed invitations enclosed. Kate’s eyes open wide at the text upon them. “Well I can’t not invite her to _this_ one.” 

It’s lunch time before she has a moment to call by Osgood’s lab, where she finds her up to her elbows in deep green gunge.

“Let me guess, primordial sludge from the dawn of time?”

“Something like that. Don’t come too close, it smells worse than it looks.”

“Ah. Well. I’ve got something for you.”

“Oh? Is it a week in a small village in Tuscany? Because that seems really appealing right now.”

“Not quite, but possibly the next best thing. You remember Harrison Fawcett?”

“The explorer? I’ve heard of him, never met him though. Didn’t he go missing near Machu Picchu a few years ago?”

Kate grins. “He did, on the trail of an ancient civilisation. Turns out, he’s just reappeared. Back in London, and the Royal Society are hosting an evening with him. My sources tell me he seems very excited about what he found, rumours of a Latin American Atlantis, in a lake…”

Osgood’s eyes light up. “And you think it might have been created by the same…?”

“I think it’s worth going along to meet him, and hear what he has to say, don’t you?” Kate waves the invite she’d brought down.

“Definitely!”

“Tomorrow night, then. We’ll leave here at 7pm?” Kate waits for Osgood’s nod before she backs away from the truly pungent experiment. “Oh, and best bring your tidy suit for this one, the invite does say black tie.” 

Osgood’s expression only falters for a moment. “I’m sure I can manage something smart.”

“That’s the spirit.”

***

Osgood turns this way and that in the ladies nearest her lab, trying to see her full reflection in the rather too small mirror.

“Well, it is smart. I just hope it’s smart enough.” She murmurs.

A tap at the door. “Osgood, are you in there?”

“Coming, just…coming.” She’ll have to do. Osgood grabs her handbag and turns to the door, almost walking into Kate. “Oh! I…didn’t hear you come in, I… You look…” 

… _Wonderful_. But she doesn’t know how to say that without gibbering. Kate has swapped her usual trouser suit for a delicate blue-grey silk cocktail dress, with matching jacket and kitten heels. Her legs seem to stretch on forever, and Osgood has to forcibly bring her eyes back up to look into Kate’s face. Which was a mistake, because now she can feel her cheeks reddening. 

“Great. You look…great.” She drops her eyes to the floor, misses Kate’s appreciative twice over, her swift bite of her lip before she replies, quietly.

“You’ve brushed up well yourself.”

“It’s nothing, really.” Osgood only has one ‘for good’ suit; a tailored black jacket with matching waistcoat, a more fitted shirt than normal, trousers and brogues. She’s plaited her hair and pinned it up round the back of her head, and picked out a burgundy silk bowtie. 

“A little more than nothing!” Kate laughs. “Come on, I’ve got the car sitting outside. We don’t want to be late!”

To Osgood’s immense surprise, they manage to get out of the Tower with only one interruption for Kate’s signature on some paperwork, and a couple of admiring looks. Before she can comment, Kate puts her finger on her lips. 

“We don’t want to jinx it!”

So Osgood nods, and follows her out to the car, slipping into the passenger seat, and trying to avoid watching Kate’s legs as they slide across the leather on the other side. Perhaps this wasn’t a good idea. She’s not sure she’s going to be able to look at Kate ever again without blushing. 

She had thought, after the fungi incident, that she had a hold on herself. Of course she’s had a bit of a crush on Kate, ever since she started. How could she not? But having managed to survive an out of body experience – and Osgood is quite certain that is what it was – where she had just, for one moment, let herself feel for Kate, she had thought she had it under control. Apparently _not_.

“So, what do you know about Fawcett?” Kate’s question breaks her reverie. 

Startled, Osgood realises by their location that she’s been staring, sightlessly, out of her window for the past fifteen minutes. “Oh, well. I, um. I’ve read one of his books, the one on the Andes. And I saw a couple of programmes he presented, back when I was at Uni. One on the Australasian rainforests, and another on the Mariana Trench.”

“Ah, so you don’t know that he’s been a person of interest for UNIT for some time?”

“No, I didn’t. Although that doesn’t surprise me, really. Why, in particular?”

“Too much of a risk not to keep an eye on him. Not when he has the potential for discovering objects of interest. He led us to a Silurian nest in Mongolia once, not that he knows it.”

“Memory wipe?”

“No, the leader of the local tribe persuaded him it was their burial chamber, and that he was dishonouring their dead if he went any further.”

“The tribe knew about the Silurians?”

“Well, they didn’t call them that. And they did actually believe the place was sacred to their people. They were a barely contacted tribe, and we decided it was more ethical to let them continue in their belief, so long as nothing changes.”

“Let’s hope it stays that way.”

“Quite. Our people lost Fawcett about a year ago – sometime after he was officially declared missing, but there’s been quite a gap nonetheless. He was last seen about seventy five miles south of Macchu Pichu, in a very remote area…”

“Which would explain the potential for a lost city.”

“It would. I’d be very interested to know just how he survived that long… Ah, we’re nearly here.”

***

It’s not the first time Osgood has been to Carleton House, but it is the first time she’s attended something so swish, and she feels rather small and underdressed beside Kate, with her elegant poise and composure. She stammers words of thanks as Kate collects up on two glasses of Prosecco (“God I wish they’d get over this fad” she murmurs in Osgood’s ear. “Give me a decent Champagne any day.”) and tries to inject herself with some of that confidence that her boss wears so easily. The building is buzzing, with what seems like all of the scientific and anthropological community’s great and good in attendance – Osgood recognises a couple of Professors from Imperial College, and at least five others whose work she reads in journals on a regular basis. Kate, meanwhile, nods to various people, and then, with a sharp jab in Osgood’s ribs, turns her swiftly towards the staircase.

“Sorry. I’d just rather… In a moment, glance around, look for a dark haired man who looks as slimy as can be…” 

Osgood does as instructed. There’s no doubting who Kate means; he looks like he’s just surfaced from an oil slick.

“Who is he?” She whispers, not that it’s necessary amongst all the chatter.

“Jeremy Davies. He used to work for the MoD. Now he’s Simon Devlin’s lackey. Awful man, he’s got at least eight pairs of hands, and can’t keep any of them to himself.” Kate pauses. “He’s also friends with my ex husband.”

Osgood whistles. “Triple trouble. Ok, so we keep out of his reach.”

“Definitely. And if, by some awful luck, he latches on to us, any and all excuses to escape are welcome.”

“Right. Oh, look, they’ve opened up the conference suite, shall we go in?”

“Let’s. Hopefully we can find some of my less unpleasant connections to blend in with.”

***

In the end up, they sit with Professor Srivastara, one of Osgood’s supervisors during her Masters, and a couple of anthropologists she knows by reputation. She follows Kate’s lead in remaining ambiguous about just what it is they do, and where; luckily her former tutor is more interested in discussing her own recent studies, allowing Osgood to feign interest and Kate to keep an eye on the room.

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you’ve all been waiting for… the return of Sir Harrison Fawcett; explorer, anthropologist, and scientist. I assure you, whatever you had hoped to hear about tonight, Harrison will deliver beyond your wildest dreams. Please give a round of applause for the man who came in from the jungle…” The compere waits as a small, scruffy man enters from a side door. 

“Funny, he always looked taller on tv.” Kate murmurs, her lips nearly brushing Osgood’s ear, before she’s shushed by the woman next to her. 

He may be small in stature, but Osgood spends the next hour feeling minuscule in front of the explorer. His tales are even taller. She’s not sure – even after everything she’s seen with UNIT – that she really believes him. A swift glance at Kate tells her she’s not alone in this feeling. 

“Any questions?” The compere asks.

“Can you find your way back to the site?” The question comes from Jeremy Davies. Kate purses her lips.

“Well, of course I can.” He looks out over the audience, trying to see who asked the question. Osgood can’t be sure, but she could swear he pales beneath his tan when he sees Davies.

“And can you tell us where it is?” A man sitting beside Davies pipes up.

“I could, but I won’t.” Harrison snaps back, a little waspish. 

Osgood glances behind her, to the two men. They do not look impressed. Nor do they look like they’re going to take “no” for an answer.

“What about the tribe you say you lived with, are they contactable?” This time it’s a woman, Osgood thinks she recognises her as a journalist.

“Well really, there are protocols against that kind of thing, you know.”

“But you said they had medicinal cures, and a greater understanding of certain forms of technology than we do, surely it would be better…”

“…It would be better if we learnt to leave well enough alone.” Now the great explorer seems truly flustered. 

“I think that is enough questions for now. As I’m sure you’re all aware, Sir Fawcett has had an arduous few years, he’s only just arrived back in London…” The compere glances around. “I hope you all enjoyed his talk, rest assured it is the first of many that we have planned. Now, how about you show your appreciation for what can only be described as Britain’s…no the World’s greatest explorer!” The room breaks out in applause, but Osgood can feel the tension. Something just doesn’t seem right. 

As the clapping dies away, she feels Kate pluck at her elbow. “Come on.”

If she had time to think about it, Osgood would be impressed at the speed with which Kate works them across the room, without being caught by anyone. They make it to a side door and slip out.

“Well that was illuminating.” Kate looks up and down the corridor. “I think…this way.” She leads them to the left. 

“Illuminating? I thought he was making half of it up.” Osgood grabs her inhaler, takes a puff. “Where are we going, exactly?”

“Trying to find Harrison. Before Davies does.” Kate answers briefly as she listens at a door. “No, not in there.” She turns back to Osgood. “You thought he was making half of it up, and so he was. The question is why. I have a hunch, and I’m willing to bet Davies and his crony do too.”

“Well, don’t keep it to yourself…”

“That tribe he met? By his description, I don’t think they were human.”

“Not a Code D?” Osgood queries.

“Hardly, given his presence here. No, I’m not sure what species. It may be one we’ve not had contact with before; they may not even be a threat. Which is fine, if some small alien colony wants to set up peaceably in a rainforest and have no contact with the rest of the world, but…”

“…not so fine if the rest of the world starts going after them. Yes, I see what you mean.”

“And if Devlin or his ilk are on to it, well. Remember what happened last time he got his hands on alien technology.”

“How could I forget?” Osgood casts her mind back to UNIT’s most recent encounter with the Nestene Energy.

They’ve reached the end of the corridor now, and there’s only one room left. Kate opens the door and looks in. There’s no sign of Fawcett, and Osgood is about to turn round when the sound of footsteps – two pairs of footsteps – reach them. 

“Damn.” Kate whispers. “Come on, inside.” 

The room is large, and mostly empty. A couple of curtains flutter across alcoves, but other than that there’s no place of concealment. Voices outside the door indicate that Davies and his companion have had the same idea as Kate. With a finger on her lips, Kate pulls Osgood to one of the alcoves, hastens them behind the curtain, putting a hand out to steady it as they hear the door open.

As her eyes adjust to the dim light, Osgood realises how little space there actually is. She’s face to face with Kate, body to body. Please don’t cough, please don’t cough, please don’t cough her inner voice repeats, while she tries to find anywhere to look that isn’t Kate’s face, or her rising and falling cleavage. 

“Damn, we’ve lost him.” The voice is Davies’, and Osgood starts. Before she knows it, Kate’s hand is on her arm, a warning look in her eye. And now Osgood can’t look away.

“What do you reckon boss, try the other way?”

“No, we’ll never get through the crowd without some official stopping us. Our best hope was getting out when we did.”

“We weren’t the only ones.”

“Don’t I know it!” Davies growls. “Bloody Kate Stewart and UNIT. They’ll have gone the other way, and got to him first. Simon’s not going to be happy about this.”

Kate’s eyebrows shoot up at this, and Osgood feels her heart leap into her mouth. This close, she can feel their chests rising and falling, and Kate’s quiet breath on her face.  
Not now Osgood, be professional, you are a professional, come on. Her inner voice is trying, but in her heart of hearts, Osgood knows she’s sunk. 

“Come on, we’d best get back. Kevin and the crew have a car waiting at the back, hopefully they can get him when he leaves.” The sound of footsteps again, and then the door clicks open and shut. 

Silence. Osgood dares to let a breath out, slowly. Then realises that Kate’s eyes have dropped from hers, to her lips, and back up. And again. Her hand is still on Osgood’s arm, soft and warm. 

_Oh._  
Ohhh.  
It doesn’t take much for their lips to meet, for the briefest, most delightful moment, before…

“Is there…is there someone there?” It’s Harrison Fawcett’s voice, but he sounds totally different, Osgood thinks. Like a frail old man. A nervous wreck of a frail old man.

Startled, Kate shakes her head at Osgood, and pulls the curtain.

“Sir Fawcett. I’m sorry, we didn’t realise... We were looking for you, but we didn’t particularly want to be spotted by the men who were just here. I presume you were in a similar quandary?”

Osgood looks at the man who, only minutes before had been so confident in front of the audience. He’s shaking, eyes darting everywhere, hand restlessly tapping his side. 

“Something…something like that. Who are you?”

“Forgive me, I should have introduced myself. Kate Stewart, Chief Scientific Officer, Unified Intelligence Taskforce, and this is Osgood, my science adviser. We came to find you as we had an idea you might have some…unwanted…company.” She shows him her ID card, which he studies carefully.

“You heard them! They’re going to try and kidnap me!” The perspiration is dripping down his forehead.

“I think we can see to it that they don’t succeed.”

“But how?”

Kate pulls out her phone, dials a number. “Bear with me a moment, while I contact my team… Ah, Captain Carter. Good, you’re still there. I’m at the Royal Society… Yes, with Osgood. Listen, something has come up. Sir Harrison Fawcett – yes, _the_ Harrison Fawcett – is with us, but it rather seems like Simon Devlin’s crowd want to get their hands on him. Apparently they’re watching the building... Yes, yes that would be excellent. Alright, you do that, then call me back.”

She turns back to Fawcett. “That was one of my men. He’ll be here in fifteen minutes, and his team will take care of Devlin’s lackeys, while he escorts you to a safe place…”

“…Where is safe from people like that? I should never have left the jungle, world has gone to the dogs!”

“How about the Tower of London?”

“But that’s ridiculous!”

“No, it’s where my office is.”

In his interest, he starts to look more like the man Osgood is familiar with. “Really?”

“Really.” They both reply at the same time. 

“Unified Intelligence you say… Sounds military?”

“Not quite.” Kate smiles. “Although we do have a military element. But science leads. I believe you once met my father, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart?”

“Lethbridge-Stewart, Lethbridge-Stewart… Ah yes. That’s going back some time. Met him in the Gobi desert of all places. Lovely chap. And he’s your father? Well I never. What’s the old fellow doing these days, is he still going?”

“Sadly not, but I’m glad to see you have fond memories. Tell me Sir Harrison…”

“Harrison, please.”

Kate obliges with a smile. “Harrison, then. Do you have a contact here you need to speak to before you leave? Obviously we want to avoid Devlin’s men if possible, but I’m presuming that by now the Royal Society staff will probably be wondering where you are.”

“Hmm, that is a point. I was dealing with a couple of secretary types mainly, fellow called Ian, and a girl named Beth.”

“Can you describe her for us, and Osgood will go and see if she can find her?” But before this becomes necessary, the door opens, and a woman with a short brown bob looks round with concerned eyes.

“Ah, Sir Harrison! I was getting worried. So many people are asking if they might speak to you, and we didn’t know where you’d gone. Are you alright? Who are these people?” She eyes Kate and Osgood. Kate opens her mouth to speak, but Fawcett beats her to it.

“Beth, excellent timing. These are connections of mine, turns out I’ve got a further commitment this evening, so I won’t have time to hang around and chat unfortunately. I wonder if you might do me a favour, though?”

“Yes?”

“I wonder is there another way downstairs, without going through the main hall? Only there was someone I knew in the audience, someone I’d really rather avoid, and I just know they’ll be hanging around… one of those types, you know, the kind who just won’t let a man get on.” 

Osgood watches with interest at his transformation now that there is someone to play to. 

“Well, there’s a service lift in the room next door. It opens just opposite the side door.”

Kate’s eyes glint at this piece of information. “That would be very useful. I can ask Carter to come to the side door.” She dashes off a text message. 

“Thank you, I’m much obliged.” Harrison nods at Beth. “I’m sure we’ll meet again soon.”

She takes the hint. “Well, on behalf of the Society, thank you for coming tonight. We’ll be in touch to finalise the seminar series…”

“Thank you, do. Good evening.”

Kate’s phone buzzes as the door shuts behind Beth. “Ah, good. That’s Josh. His team are busy at the back, and he has the car waiting for you at the side.” She leads the way out of the room, checking the corridor before beckoning Harrison and Osgood out. They find the service lift with no difficulty, and Kate holds Osgood back from entering the lift too. “We’ll head down to the main entrance, create a diversion if necessary.”

Harrison nods, his earlier fear still a glimmer in his eyes. “Your man…he’s armed?”

“He is. He’ll see you safely to the Tower.”

“Good, good.” With that, the lift doors close.

Kate turns to Osgood. “Come on.”

The crowd has abated somewhat, but a low hum still rises from the entrance hall. They get down the stairs and make it half way across the room before they are accosted by none other than Davies. 

“Kate Blackwell, long time no see.”

“A very long time if you can’t remember my name.” 

He laughs. Osgood thinks it’s more of a sneer. “You women and your names. How’s UNIT? Still running around after little green men?”

Kate raises an eyebrow. “Still keeping the people of this country safe, yes. Other than that, classified. As you should well know.”

“Ah now, can’t you tell an old friend the gossip?”

Osgood notices his hand sliding round Kate’s waist with revulsion. She crosses the space to force herself between them, breaking the contact. “The MoD isn’t all that hot on gossip actually.”

He glares at her, turns back to Kate. “How charming, you have a guard dog.”

Feeling Kate bristle beside her, Osgood struggles to keep her own face neutral.

“Oh, my scientific adviser is _far more_ than that.” Kate’s smile is belied by her grim tone.

“Scientific eh, what did you make of Harrison Fawcett’s tale then? A likely story, some un-contacted tribe having cures to all our ills.” 

“Not unlikely enough to stop your companion wanting to know how to find them.” Osgood replies swiftly.

“Ah yes, where _is_ Mr Carleton?” Kate cuts in, an edge to her tone. “Interesting company you’re keeping these days Jeremy.”

He pales. “I didn’t realise you’d met Ben.”

“I make it my business to know when former members of Cerberus end up working for apparently reputable global businesses.” Her response is smooth. “Or didn’t you know his background?”

Now Davies reddens. “I…That’s…Classified. None of your business Kate.” He looks around hurriedly. “Ah, here he comes.”

“Mr Carleton, you look somewhat flustered.”

The hired thug glowers, but says nothing, merely shaking his head at Davies. 

“Well, would you look at the time. We must be off. Good night gentlemen.” Kate gives the briefest of nods in their direction, before turning away. Osgood follows, never more relieved. They don’t speak until they’ve reached Kate’s car.

“I didn’t realise you’d recognised his henchman.”

“I never forget the face of someone who’s shot at me.” Kate responds drily. 

“Ah. Should we be worried that Devlin’s employing him?”

“I can’t honestly say that I’m surprised. It does make me wonder what he’s up to this time though.” Kate starts the car. “I think he was coming back to tell Jeremy that our men had scattered his little hijacking party. Of course, he couldn’t say anything when he saw us.”

“Quite.”

Kate looks into the rear view mirror, and groans. “Really?”

“What?”

“It would appear that we’re being followed. Of course, that was part of the reason I separated us from Harrison, but still, it’s rather tedious.”

“Can you lose them?” Osgood asks, feeling a little nervous.

Kate glances across at her with a reassuring smile. “I should think so. But I think I’ll just phone Carter and warn him. He can make sure Harrison is fed and watered, and put him to bed for the night. We can begin the debrief first thing in the morning.” She takes a sharp left without indicating, earning a blare of another driver’s horn. “They’re in a dark saloon, I think it’s a BMW, number plate LL50 ITT. Keep an eye out for me would you?”

Kate puts the car through a series of manoeuvres whilst updating Josh on the handsfree. Osgood has a crick in her neck from all the twisting and turning she does to see if they’re still being followed.

“They’ve still got us, I think.” She replies to Kate’s questioning glance, when she’s hung up. 

“Ok, I’m going to take us south of the river, hopefully lose them in Lambeth.” 

Osgood nods, wondering if she’s ever going to get home, given they’re going in completely the opposite direction.

For a while, they are silent, as Kate concentrates on picking a selection of one way streets, doubling back manoeuvres, occasional bursts of speed, and at least once going twice round a roundabout.

“I don’t want to speak too soon, but I think we might have lost them.” She notes somewhere around Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital. 

“Great! What next?” 

“Well…” Kate pulls up in a small side street, carefully parking closely between two large SUVs. “I could leave you home. I don’t think there’s really any chance of being followed now; if there was, I wouldn’t dream of it. But, you’re up in Tottenham, aren’t you?”

Osgood nods.

“It’s getting late, we’ve an early start with Fawcett tomorrow, and we’re quite near the Tower. I don’t make it public knowledge, for obvious reasons, but I keep my houseboat in St Katharine’s Dock, for the times when I can’t afford to be as far away as Notting Hill. How about we go there, have a cup of tea, and get some sleep?” Kate glances across at Osgood, then adds: “I promise I’ll keep things strictly professional.”

Osgood feels her heart drop at this. She hasn’t really had time to consider their kiss, but if she had, she knows she’d have been hoping for a repeat experience. 

“That sounds like a good idea.” She assents, nonetheless.

“Good.” Kate starts the car up and pulls out. 

Osgood watches her drive in silence for some time, fighting an internal battle. Finally, when they’re paused at the lights before the turn off to the Dock, she murmurs “I…think I quite…enjoyed being…unprofessional.” 

Kate starts, and the engine kicks back in – just in time for the green light. She doesn’t say anything as she brings the car down to the residents’ parking entrance. Nor does she speak as she edges around the car park to her bay. 

_Stupid stupid stupid stupid_ Osgood curses herself roundly. _Why couldn’t you just stay silent, why did you have to ruin it all?_ She would give anything to unsay the comment. _Perhaps this is just a bad dream…?_ She shakes herself. _A bad dream where she and Kate Stewart, her unbelievably beautiful, highly intelligent, wonderful boss had kissed._

The engine dies away. Osgood is so engrossed in her interior panic that she completely misses Kate turning to her, eyes casting across her face, searching.

“Do you mean that?” Her voice is low, tinged with just the faintest touch of pleading.

This time it is Osgood who jumps. Glances at Kate, eyes widening when she sees the longing in her expression.

“I… Yes. Yes I do.” Somewhere in her brain, Osgood’s inner voice makes a mental note of how firm she sounds. She never sounds that determined, or rarely, at any rate.

Kate lets out a slow breath, takes Osgood’s hand in hers, thumb stroking the skin, face rapt in wonder. 

This time their kiss is slow, first lips, just a little open, then, _oh_ , then Osgood feels Kate’s tongue slip against hers, returns the pressure, and hears herself moan as Kate’s other hand caresses the back of her head. She never wants this to end.

But it does, and Kate looks at her, breath rising and falling, eyes dark. “Perhaps we should move…”

“Move, yes. Yes, that’s… yes.” Osgood can hear her inner voice rolling her eyes. 

“Come on.” With one last thumb-stroke, Kate drops her hand.

They don’t touch or talk as they walk round the dock, or as Kate swipes her access pass to the pontoon. It doesn’t feel safe. Osgood is trying to contain her inner Liesl von Trapp, and Kate, well, to all outward appearances she looks completely contained, but Osgood has a very good idea that looks can be deceiving. It is only when they reach the houseboat that she remembers all the times she’s been seasick, including that embarrassing time in the bath, as a kid. 

Kate looks at her from the deck, clearly guessing what she’s thinking. “You’ll be fine. There’s practically no movement here, especially on a calm night like tonight.” She lays down a small gangplank. 

“I hope so.” Osgood accepts Kate’s proffered hand to walk aboard. She follows her to the cockpit, twists her hands as Kate unlocks the door, flicks the electricity on. 

“Welcome aboard.” Kate turns to her, gestures. “After you.”

It’s a remarkably light and airy space, considering, Osgood thinks. And after the various mini-submarines she’s experienced thanks to UNIT, she doesn’t feel quite so bad about enclosed spaces any more. Especially not now that she’s sharing it with Kate, in this context. As she looks around, she can hear Kate pottering in the galley, putting on the kettle, mugs clinking. 

“Can I help?”

“Just make yourself at home.” Kate appears at the door to the saloon. “I’ve got toast on, afraid I don’t keep much proper food on board with never knowing when I’m going to be here. But I could do us an omelette?”

“That would be really nice. Are you sure I can’t help?”

“The one thing about houseboats… There’s really not room for two people in the galley.” Kate makes a long arm back into the kitchen area, then passes out some cutlery. “You could lay the table.”

The food doesn’t take long, and Osgood is glad of both it and the tea. She had been feeling decidedly empty. 

“That’s better.” Apparently Kate had too. She clears away their plates, unfolds the table, and comes to sit beside Osgood, pulling her legs up and curving in to face her. 

“I thought it was just me.”

Osgood looks at her, with an unspoken query, then the penny drops. “I, well… I… I mean, I think I _realised_ after the fungi incident but… Well, I never thought it would be reciprocated.”

“It was around the same time for me, too.” A smile plays across Kate’s face. “For two highly intelligent women, I think we’ve been making fools of ourselves, don’t you?” 

“A fool for Kate Stewart, that’s me.” Osgood reaches out her hand, and Kate takes it. “I… I’m not very good at this sort of thing, don’t really have the time to think about it.”

“And if you did, you’d probably tie yourself in many more knots.” Kate winks at her. “I know you. Anyway, I can’t say I’m particularly good at it either, although normally it’s work that gets in the way, and at least you understand that.”

“Do you think we can…?” Osgood isn’t sure what she’s asking, or how.

“I think the only thing we can do is see how it goes, work it out as we go along, don’t you?” Kate lifts Osgood’s hand to her lips. “Because I don’t know about you, but I don’t think even a memory wipe would take away _this_.” 

“No…and it might cause more than a few problems of its own.” Osgood laughs, before leaning into Kate. “I…may I…?”

Kate answers by meeting the question with her lips, moaning as Osgood pulls her in deeper, tongues her lips, kisses her cheek, her neck, the lobe of her ear. Kate groans at that, and Osgood feels her arousal, gasping as Kate’s hands clasp at her head, accidentally pulling a plait loose. 

“I…we should…probably be…” Kate is the one to make space between them once more. She takes a steadying breath. “I mean, it’s late, we have an early start, and I don’t want to rush this… Much.”

Osgood’s face must fall, because Kate dips back in to drop a kiss on her lips. 

“I mean, I think we should have time at our disposal to really…” Her eyes darken, and Osgood notes a pink deepening in her cheeks. “ _Enjoy_ each other, don’t you?”

“I suppose so?” Osgood doesn’t want to admit that now she’s let go of this control she’s held on to for months, all she wants to do is touch and be touched by Kate; wants to feel every inch of Kate’s body against hers. 

Kate stands up and holds her hands out. “Having said that, when I asked if you’d like to stay here tonight, I had been intending on giving you the main bed, and I would have just slept in here… but…”

Osgood stands, trying to ignore the slick heat between her legs. “We can be good. We can just…cuddle.”

“I’d like that.” Kate nudges in to kiss Osgood again, holding her close. “I’d like that a lot.” She turns and leads the way, to the double bunk that takes up most of the forward cabin. “I think I have a spare nightshirt here.” Osgood’s disappointment must be clear, when Kate turns back. She strokes Osgood’s face. “I don’t trust myself. I…” 

It’s not often Kate Stewart is lost for words, and Osgood nods, shakily. Takes the proffered extra large t-shirt, and retreats to the saloon to change, as swiftly as she can. Leaves her knickers on with a sigh of regret. Knocks at the cabin door and waits till Kate opens it. Cannot stop the moan that escapes her lips as she casts her eyes over Kate in full cream silk pyjamas. If it’s possible, Kate’s eyes darken some more. 

“Which side do you prefer?” Her voice is shaking.

“Um, left?” 

Kate gestures for Osgood to get in first, then slips in after her, turning out the light. 

Osgood shifts until she’s facing Kate, who she can just see in the dull glow from the curtained cabin window. Nuzzles in till their lips meet, dares to let her hand rest on Kate’s waist, stroking the delicate fabric as it rustles across soft, warm skin. 

“You know,” she whispers, “if this is how evening events turn out on a regular basis, I’ll happily be your plus one more often.”

Kate chuckles. “I think that can be arranged.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you _enjoyed_ that, it left you wanting more, and you're old enough to read M rated fic, (and have the inclination), the epilogue may be found [here...](http://archiveofourown.org/works/13553985)


End file.
